Mac OS X is by far my favorite. My main reasons are as follows:
1) It comes bundled with a tremendous amount of valuable software, all of which is scripted to work together.
2) The design gives it a more polished look than that of windows or command-line OS's.
3) If you need a powerful command-line function, OS X is based on UNIX and a UNIX terminal can be easily accessed.
4) Apple offers developer tools as a FREE download.

There are Many more reasons, however this is the bases...

Oh, and it is highly unlikely that you will be able to run OS X on a non-apple intel box. I read a press release that states that OS X on intel boxes must talk to a special chip that only apple makes before it starts up.

From what I heard, The Intel-Powered Macintosh isn't going to use an X86 processor at all. Think about it, after releasing the first true 64-bit Macintosh, do you really think Apple is going to go back to a 32-bit architecture? Very unlikely. It's quite a backward step. It's supposed to be a completely new architecture. But it's not going to be any Pentium or 80anything86 out there, that's for sure.

But back to topic...My favourite OS? I have a few.

First, above anything, is OpenBSD.
Why? Well, PROACTIVE security, stability, and not to mention a quite nice selection of OpenBSD packages found conveniently on the OpenBSD site, and none of that extra BS you find in most Linux distros, like odd kernels, programs that run great on one distro, but won't on others....can be installed from a single floppy, very small, I could fill a few paragraphs with all the good stuff about it, but I like how it's not a Windows-wannabe, it's just straight up UNIX in it's most pure and raw form I've seen yet.

(Slackware Linux seems to be the only exception to the "Let's make Linux just like Windows!" rule that Red Hat and Mandrake, as well as SuSE and blah seem to follow. I used to be a diehard Slackware user for the same reason I now swear by OpenBSD, and I love slack, very much, but it just doesnt cut it for me now that I've finally used OpenBSD. I'm going to be using OpenBSD for life.)

Second, as media isn't OpenBSD's strong point, I use for my media purposes, of course, the straight up Media OS from the ground up, the venerable BeOS VIMBA release. Here is where I listen to my music, watch my movies, make my hiphop beats, play my games, all that good stuff. of course, I would much rather use an Amiga to do these things, BeOS does the job quite well, I must say. While maybe UNIX isn't the (initially) friendliest solution for Windows users wanting to migrate to something more stable, they would very likely get along great with BeOS. Of course, the only thing I use BeOS for IS media, but it does other things quite well too. It can sure "kick ass and chew bubblegum." If you know what I mean (Back when there were actually cool shoot-em-up games...Halo and Half-Life and such will never compare to the Duke.)

Third...Apple DOS. I spent the first 7 years of my life with it, and I still use it to this day, although not as much as I did back then. Although I no longer put the master disk in the drive and pound on the keyboard like I did for the first year...(give me a break, I was a baby!) Also thanks to Apple DOS, (well, my Apple II+ in general), I also matched the reading abilities of a first-grade elementary student by the age of 3.

Now, I only named the ones I currently use. But in a nutshell...
My favourite of all time is, OpenBSD, and my second favourite is AmigaOS. Although, I must say that using an Amiga window manager on OpenBSD, does the trick quite well.

I think Linux is the best one. I already use Win XP Pr0, but it's because i have stupid brother who don't know how to use linux xD

The Linux/UNIX family kick ass, so I voted for it.

Personally I like Macs over Windows... I never used Linux so I have no opinion on that OS.



I agree every OS has it's problems... and windows are for newbies...

Windows XP: is the most used OS in the world so it is easy to hack and infect with spyware/adware.

Mac OS X: for the most part there really is not much customization that you can do with a Mac.

I like XP. it's the most user friendly. the one that the most games run on. the most programs. it's industry standard. It's got (more) than its share of problems, but still, i feel overall it's the best to use. I don't like the lack of GUI on Linux, and i don't like Macs in general----nothing performance related, just personal preference. one point i feel has merit, in the Windows vs. Mac battle, is that Mac hardware is expensive and hard to come by compared to PC components. available everywhere and anyone can fix it, if it needs to be replaced, for petty cash you've got a new piece.

I have to say that I could not dissagree more with the previous statements. Before I say why, I would like to say that I currently own 2 macs and one windows computer. I know what both OS are like and have used both extensively (Mac os 9, osx, Windows 98,2000,XP). I also use Linux a lot too, although not as much as Windows and Mac. I'm not one of those self-proclaimed experts who complain about and critisize things they know nothing about.

Windows is not better than Mac OSX at anything and is not better than Linux at anything except that it has a nicer looking GUI than Linux (yet windows GUI is much slower). Windows isn't even better at gaming, although there are way more games available for Windows. The same games run smoother and faster on Macs than windows with comparable stats. Windows is terribly slow and fragile, you have to have a very expensive computer to comfortably run windows xp. Windows is NOT the most user friendly os. Everyone says its the most user friendly because 90 something percent of computer users use windows. Lots of windows users use windows for years and years and then try Mac osx for two minutes and dismiss osx as hard to use. Well of course they're going to say it's hard to use because they've been using windows all their lives. Mac osx is much more user friendly than any of the windows. The applications are more accesible, the file searching is better, system settings and info are much more accessible, and to top it of, the Mac osx is faster and more streamlined.

I agree. I don't really care who says which OS is the best because, for me, XP's cool. The poll is interesting, though, because as of right now it's basically showing that users like all the choices roughly equally. (Linux is ahead, technically, but it's not like fifty percent ahead of everything else.)

I love XP, but if someone wants to use Linux, cool. S/he has an advantage, actually: I'll never ask to borrow their computer (because I'd have no idea of what to do with it past booting it up, hehe).

nice one maceace8, I totally agree! Check my post "What's Wrong With Microsoft?", there's currently a debate about it there.

xboxrulz

Just for the record, I think the phrase "The Best OS" means the best OS universally. I understand your logic, Sarah81, but I think what your talking about is "The Best OS for me", not "The Best OS".